Colorado family reunion

One day late for Throwback Thursday on Facebook, so here it is one day late.

This is Sarah at age 9 when she and I went to Colorado to visit my family that summer.

It is lunchtime Mountain time, but we were up since 3:30 Eastern time to catch a flight to Philadelphia then change planes to Denver. We were exhausted!

It was a nice visit and today we have an artifact, a Ford Expedition that my sister picked up that evening for the trip.

Basement Steps

Here's our basement steps earlier today. Over the years the stringer board (upper photo, left side) had bowed out nearly three inches. This created gaps that left some of the steps supported only by nails,

To shore up the steps I cut that board then used a pipe clamp (lower photo, center) to bring the sides back together. Then I installed an extra board next to the cut one to transfer the load. However I had to punch holes in the wall for the clamp.

Still, it was worth it because it worked!

Next time I will patch the holes and paint the steps. In the meantime the basement steps are now structurally sound.

Who's who?

Here's Janine and her friend Lizzy in their Halloween costumes. They are...wait for it...dressed as each other! Yes I know it is hard to tell them apart, the costumes are that good. But that will simply have to do.

It's all great fun and a very clever idea. The study center they both go to on Fridays prohibited Halloween costumes. But sometimes restrictions focus creativity and this is one of those situations. Good job girls! Everyone liked it.

Saturday at the Warhol Museum

This past Saturday Janine, her friend Tessa, John and I visited the Andy Warhol Museum in the North Shore area across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh. This is the Silver Pillow Room, a recreation of one of the installations at the Factory, Warhol's New York studio. While we didn't see Grace Jones or any other celebrities, the photo below is our parking level reminder. I was reassured that Grace's fierce eyes would be guarding our car.

End of Summer

Here's the four of us about a month ago for Sarah's end of summer dinner out. We went to a restaurant in the Fairmont that was very creative so naturally we all had to have a taste of each other's dinners.

...just getting back into posting here. We will add more later...